


New Horizon

by Winterose



Series: Star Guardians [2]
Category: League of Legends
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Star Guardians, Star Guardians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-01-21 23:47:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12468700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winterose/pseuds/Winterose
Summary: Star Guardians Ahri, Miss Fortune, Ezreal, Soraka and Syndra are a team, more or less perfect. Their actions, thoughts, emotions and ways of thinking differ, but somehow they are still able to get their work done and live their normal lives at the same time.





	1. Part 1: Danger

Ahri carefully covered her nails with a slightly glittering pink nail polish as she waited for the rest of her team to show up. They had a club room of their own, in the upstairs of a high building known commonly as the Piltower, a short for Pile Tower, with a breathtaking sight above the city. It was not a cheap place, but it was given to Ahri when she asked for her adoptive parents to get her a club room of her own. During her years as a Star Guardian, she had learnt it was necessary to have a place for Star Guardians only to meet up without interruptions.

A key turned in the lock and the door opened quietly. Ahri smiled at her nails, and without even looking at the door’s direction, she spoke to her comrade. 

“Do you take coffee, Syndra?” Ahri asked, looking at her perfect nails like looking for a mistake in the polish. “I think the coffee is ready. There should be milk and cream in the fridge.”

“I’ll drink my coffee black”, Syndra answered shortly and walked straight up to the kitchen corner. Ahri snorted and closed her nail polish bottle.

“As always”, she said. “Black like your colours, huh? You remind me of the story of the First Star Guardian.”

“Rather black and bitter than that overly sweet princess coffee you drink”, Syndra sat down on a coach across the glass table they had in the room. “I wouldn’t even call that shit coffee. It has more cream and sugar in it than coffee.”

Ahri laughed. Her laughter was tinkling, like bells. Syndra knew that was one of the reasons she was so popular. Something in her laughter made people fall for her. Same for her smile. Syndra watched Ahri’s tails waver slowly behind her. Only in Star Guardian safe place and in duty she dared to show them, but at school and normal life she had to hide them to act normal. Ahri wasn’t like the rest of them, a human being. She had been left behind the door of her adoptive parents years ago, and raised to act like a human being. Only a few knew of her tails, but no one was sure where she came from. Probably from some galaxy far, far away.

The door opened again, this time faster than the previous time. Ezreal grinned and walked in, Miss Fortune and Soraka right behind him. Soraka was yet another creature from another world, but she hid her horn even at the safe place. She only let it show in her Star Guardian form.

“Look at what I found in the lift on my way up here”, Ezreal grinned and waved towards them. “Two beautiful girls for your service.”

Ezreal jokingly bowed at Ahri. Miss Fortune only rolled her eyes around and slapped him in the back of the head. Ahri giggled at the scene. It was nothing new, though it never failed to amuse her.

“Sarah, you are so mean to him”, Ahri said, not truly meaning it.

As everyone had taken coffee and Soraka had brought some cookies and small snacks, they sat all down around the glass table that shone in the light coming through the window. They all sat in silence, until a call for their help rang in everyone’s head.

“We should go”, Ahri stood up and reached her hand forward. “Our help is needed.”

And through the time and space they traveled to fulfill their duty.

~*~

“I’m thankful you have come to see me”, spoke a lady sitting on a throne-like chair a bit above the ground level where the Star Guardians stood looking up at her. “I really appreciate you stepping down to this filthy, dark, corrupted land we live in.”

None of her words were lies. The world of hers was full of shadows, killers, assassins and treachery, a world that was usually left out of Star Guardians’ duty if the mad creatures just stayed in their poisonous world and left the other worlds be. But this time a call for Star Guardians had been heard from that forgotten corner, and they had been sent to see what it was for.

The lady stood up from her throne and, in a blink, appeared right in front of Ahri. The lady wore a massive cape, though that seemed to be pretty much everything she wore. Her outfit, together with the look in her eyes and the aura Ahri could sense around her, made everyone feel uncomfortable. But they had learnt to hide it, in order to stay alive during their missions. No feelings allowed, no bond of love.

“See, I have a case that needs some.. higher class help”, the lady said, staring Ahri straight into the eyes. Ahri didn’t turn her face away, even if she wanted to.

“What sort of a case?” she asked. “A threat to order and peace?”

The lady laughed.

“Yes, if that is the way you say it.. a threat to order and peace”, she said with a slight wicked shade in her tone. “Would you help me catch a spider?”

~*~

“Why are we doing this?” Miss Fortune whispered as they flew towards the castle they knew to be the residence of the Spider Queen, called to be a monster for murdering her husband to get the power of the two great houses, with dark powers as her guidance.

“We will see if she is the monster we were told she is”, Ahri answered just as quietly. “If she is, we will take her down. If she is not, we will leave them deal with each other for good.”

“Sounds weird, to lie about a monster to get rid of an enemy”, Ezreal shrugged and pet his familiar.

“Knowing this world, it wouldn’t be a surprise”, Miss Fortune shook her head.

“Let’s be done with this, quick and clean”, Ahri reminded as they landed in front of the open gate leading to a great yard and a huge house. They walked through the yard, and the further they went the more they wished they hadn’t. All the plants and trees were dead, gray like rocks, with spider webs all around. Ahri lead the way, keeping her confidence even with the horror scenery around them, followed by Ezreal and Miss Fortune, who both seemed to be nervous but ready, Syndra and Soraka walking the last. Soraka seemed so horrified it was almost silly. She stared around and held tightly on her staff like it would save her from the spiders. The only one who didn’t seem to care about it was Syndra, who just made sure that Soraka could keep on walking.

They entered the front doors into great hall, darker than the yard, and equally scary if not even more. The five of them seemed to be the brightest thing in the building. They looked around and walked slowly towards the stairs that would lead to upstairs. Halfway through the hall a voice echoed around them, asking what they wanted of her.

“We have come to talk”, Ahri answered looking up wishing to see where the voice came from. 

“Those who carry light within will never be able to speak with the shadows”, the echo answered. “This is not your place, Star Guardians. This will be your grave, if you don’t leave immediately.”

“We won’t leave until we are sure you are not the monster we are told you are”, Ahri announced. A laughter filled the hall and echoed from every wall around them.

“You are such stupid little kids”, the voice called. “You are afraid, yet you still come here threatening  _ me _ . You will regret that.”

A shadow flew over their heads, red shining eyes staring at them, too fast to be seen clearly.

“Weak minds are the easiest to control”, the voice whispered. “What if I took the control over you, hm?”

Soraka left out a gasp and her staff fell on the floor. Everyone turned to look at her. Something was wrong. The look in her usually so soft eyes turned foggy and her face was empty, as if she was only a shell with no one inside.

“Soraka?” Ezreal called and reached a hand towards her.

“Don’t touch her!” Ahri commanded and Ezreal froze. He looked at Ahri, confused, turning his eyes away from Soraka. A mistake. Soraka, or whatever she now was, grabbed Ezreal by his throat and threw him on the ground under her fragile, but suddenly so strong body. Ezreal, confused as he was, tried to remove Soraka’s hands, but didn’t seem to succeed.

_ What the Hell?  _ Ahri thought as she watched the most unreal situation in front of her.  _ She isn’t that strong. What is this? _

Miss Fortune reacted quickly. She shot a ball of light towards Soraka to get her away from Ezreal, but the shot however accurate it was, didn’t hit the target. It was not a miss; Soraka simply raised her one hand and stopped the light bullet by magic.

“She has so much power inside”, a voice called from somewhere above their heads. “She keeps hiding it, hm? Not good.. no.. best would be I’d release that power, to keep her from suffering.”

As the voice laughed, Soraka flew the bulled back to Miss Fortune, throwing her meters back from the others.

“Now this fool’s farce ends”, Ahri shouted and flew up to see where their enemy was. She met the glare of red eyes, mocking her.

“You are strong”, the voice whispered. “But not strong enough.”

A wind blew Ahri backwards, but she managed to get her balance back soon enough. Or so she thought. Once she was ready to attack, spider web grabbed her and tied her to her place.

“What.. ah?” Ahri bit her teeth together. Down in the hall big spiders had crawled to fight Syndra who protected Miss Fortune from them. Miss Fortune couldn’t move, but shot as many spiders as she could. Ezreal lay unconscious under Soraka, who rose her hand again to hit both Syndra and Miss Fortune with strong blow of magic, hitting them both to the wall and letting the spiders grab a hold of them.

“My, my, what a pity they were not worthy a fight”, another voice called from the door. Ahri looked at the lady who had given them the mission, feeling the anger grow inside of her.

“Did you set us a trap?!” Ahri shouted at her. The lady laughed.

“Oh my, did I?” her voice was full of mockery. “Might be I did. I hoped to have a good show out of you, but it seems you were just a snack.”

Ahri couldn’t answer her, since the lady left the hall with an evil laughter echoing from the walls. 

_ So stupid, _ Ahri thought, feeling the web make her limbs numb.  _ We should have seen this.. this place should have been left on its own. We shouldn’t have listened to the call for help from here… _

A flash broke the web around Ahri. She opened her eyes and saw Syndra fly in front of her, carrying barely conscious Miss Fortune with her. A gun pointed towards Ahri, but dropped when the webs let go of Ahri.

“Free Soraka and let’s get the Hell out of here”, Syndra shouted. Ahri nodded and flew down to Soraka, dodging the magic she used to try to fly Ahri away. She grabbed Soraka’s hand and stared her right into the eyes.

“Soraka, I am the only one allowed inside of your head”, Ahri said with a strict but soft voice, using the magic of her charm to override the possession of the Spider Queen. The colour changed in Soraka’s eyes, and then she dropped down on Ahri’s hands. Ahri grabbed her staff and Ezreal and shouted at Syndra the order to escape. She couldn’t see Syndra or Miss Fortune anymore, but left the mansion anyway.

The ground below her feet turned from hard rock to soft grass, and the light filled her mind. A gentle wind blew past her, cleaning her from the dust and anxiousness the mansion had left. The air was easier to breathe.

Ahri opened her eyes and saw Syndra sit next to Miss Fortune, quite close to where Ahri crouched with Soraka in her arms, Ezreal in front of her. Miss Fortune breathed in deep, slow breaths like trying to figure out how air floated through her lungs. Ezreal and Soraka woke up slowly after they had landed on the grassy field, safe under a tree of stars.

“Where are we?” Soraka asked quietly.

“Safe”, Ahri answered, looking at her. “Are you all right?”

“My head hurts”, Soraka complained, “but otherwise I think so.”

“Since when have you had such a strength?” Ezreal asked, coughing while spoke. Soraka startled.

“Wha-- no, I don’t”, she muttered. “Why, what, what happened?”

“Nothing”, Ezreal sighed and threw a smile. “Don’t let it bother you. Everyone’s alive.”

_ Everyone’s alive. For now, _ Ahri thought and looked up at the sky.  _ For how long, you never know. _


	2. The Blue Star

Ezreal kicked the ball and took a deep breath. It was a warm day, and outside practise had everyone sweat like little pigs in the summer. Ezreal swiped his hair aside and ran again after the ball.  _ Gotta keep up with the others. I can do this, I’ve been living on the football court half of my life, _ he thought. From the corner of his eye Ezreal saw girls from his art class sit on the grass at the side of the court.

_ Are they watching the practise, or just enjoying the sun? _ Ezreal wondered and when had a chance, quickly looked at the girls. The cute girl Lux sat there with the potty mouth one, Jinx, both had books in their hands. Not that Jinx didn’t seem to read the book, but more like chatted with Lux instead.  _ What a pity. I would go say hi, if they weren’t together. Jinx hates me. _

As the coach whistled the practise to end, Ezreal grabbed his water bottle and went towards the changing rooms.  _ A shower will feel so good after today, _ he thought, swiping sweat from his forehead.  _ Cold water is like heavenly gift for us.. _

“Hey, Ezreal”, hearing Lux’s voice right behind him made Ezreal startle a bit. He hadn’t expected her to come speak with him. 

“Hi”, Ezreal stopped and turned around. “Where did you leave that noisy friend of yours?”

“Jinx left ahead, because I wanted to say hi to you”, Lux smiled.  _ Damn she looks so cute when she smiles. Damn that, she’s not interested in me more than a friend. _ “You seemed to play pretty well. You got a game coming again?”

“Yeah, we have the Cities’ Cup starting in about one and a half weeks”, Ezreal nodded and grinned. “Are you girls gonna be there? To see us, like, be our cheerleaders?”

“I wish I had the abilities to be a cheerleader”, Lux laughed.

“You’d have the looks.”

Lux blushed lightly and Ezreal grinned.

“I would be happy to see you there”, Ezreal said and made a flirty hand movement by pointing at Lux like his fingers were a gun and winked. “Bring me some luck to the game, right?”

“We’ll see about it”, Lux smiled, but shook her head. “I’ll need to do a lot of schoolwork now, since my parents..” Lux bit her lower lip. “I just.. don’t want to fall behind, okay?”

Ezreal nodded and touched lightly Lux’s cheek.

“I get it”, he said. “Don’t ruin everything for me. I’m not that good a person.”

Lux looked up at Ezreal.

“Now, I really need to go before you faint. Not for my charm, I just really need a shower.”

Lux laughed the goodbyes and left Ezreal half-running towards the school building, where Ezreal could see Jinx wait for her.

_ What a liar, _ Ezreal thought, grinning, and walked into the building with locker rooms and showers.

~*~

Cold water felt good on his skin. There was no warm water in the side building that the football players used, and therefore most took only a quick shower to get rid of the sweat. But Ezreal loved the cold showers. It cooled off his skin, and when everyone else left, he only heard the drops of water on the floor and felt at peace.

_ It reminds me of the first time I learnt I’m a Star Guardian _ , Ezreal thought, his eyes closed so that water could flow on his face freely.  _ The first time I saw my reflection in the water. There was a fountain back then.  _

“Hey, Ez, you gonna move in there?” a voice cut through Ezreal’s thoughts. “Want me to change your address?”

Ezreal laughed and closed the shower.

“I’m coming out now, gotta make it to the next class”, Ezreal answered with a grin. “Though I  _ could _ move into that shower. It’s nice and cool. Just like me.”

“More like freezingly cold. I’ll go already, see you in the class, alrighty?”

“Right”, Ezreal’s voice was muffled by the towel he used to dry his face and hair. The door made a loud screech as it closed and left Ezreal alone in the sweet silence, drowning in his memories again.

~*~

_ Ezreal opened his eyes. It was quiet and dark, and somewhere, or more like all around him, were stars. Thousands, millions, countless stars twinkling in the dark. _

_ Ezreal looked at his hands. They were bare, his whole body was bare, and he floated in the space glowing its own, dim light when there was nothing else. There were no sounds, no movement except for Ezreal looking around. _

_ ‘Where am I?’ he asked, but no sound came out of his mouth. His own voice echoed inside his head, when it should have rang in his ears. _

_ Then, somewhere above him, a light was lit. A colourful light that grew stronger and stronger until it filled everything and drowned Ezreal in it. _

_ When Ezreal next opened his eyes, he was in a small paradise-like park with beautiful trees and plants that were not from his own world. Somewhere behind him a fountain flowed water slowly, mirroring light magically all around. _

_ “What is this place?” Ezreal whispered and took a small step forward. Something felt weird and Ezreal glanced down on his clothes. They were odd, white and blue, like some idol’s clothes with a small, blue, four-pointed star on his chest. _

_ Ezreal ran to see his reflection from the water. Even though the water kept on moving, he could clearly see his face and hair. His hair had blue stripes, ones that shone the same way as the star on his chest did. _

_ “Like your new looks?” _

_ It was Ahri who had stood next to Ezreal, her nine tails swinging lightly as she spoke and smiled to Ezreal. _

_ “Where am I?” Ezreal had asked, confused. “Why do I look like a Japanese teen idol?” _

_ “You’re one of us now”, Ahri had said and reached a hand to him. “You are a Star Guardian.” _

~*~

“Ezreal! Stay focused!” Ahri would probably have slapped him if she was close enough. Ezreal shot a monster a few steps away from Ahri, when she hadn’t yet seen it.

“I’m always focused”, Ezreal grinned and turn away. Ahri snorted and continued fighting. There had been a small leak from a world to another, and a bunch of little monsters had escaped to threaten a village near to the edge of the world. Monsters were small, but nasty. 

“Ugh, these creatures are so ugly”, Miss Fortune made a grumpy face as she shot another two from a good distance.

“Would you shoot them if they were cute?” Ezreal asked.

“If they’d try to bite me”, Miss Fortune admitted and shot another one. “Looks don’t always save you.”

Ezreal laughed.

“Well, looks ain’t a sure loss either”, he shrugged. “I mean, look at us. Five gorgeous heroes ready to save the day.”

Miss Fortune shot a creature not far from Ezreal’s head.

“Don’t let it blind you”, she joked and turn around so that her red hair floated beautifully behind. Almost like in slow motion, except for it was no film and hair doesn’t move in slow motion. Ezreal grinned.

“As deadly as she’s good-looking”, he murmured. “I guess that goes on most of the girls in here..”


	3. The Red Star

Miss Fortune walked on the corridor head up like a model. Many would say it was pride that kept her head up and eyes closed from the boys who tried to hit on her. Some would even say she was cocky and overconfident about herself.

_ Piss them _ , Miss Fortune thought as some jealous girls started giggling when she passed them.  _ With what I’ve been through, with what I’m going through once every couple of days, it takes more than sweet syrup words for me to start caring. If they knew about all that, would they be quiet? Would they respect me? Maybe. Probably not. Humans are such jealous creatures. Jealous, greedy, selfish humans. _

She opened her locker and put in some school books to make space in her bag for a couple of new ones she needed that afternoon. Even though she tried to keep her locker clean, it always seemed to go messy in a week or two.

“Kissed by fire.”

The voice surprised her. Miss Fortune startled and looked at the guy leaning to the lockers to be able to speak with her. He had a smile on his face that many would have called “handsome”.

“I’m sorry?” Miss Fortune knit her eyebrows.

“Your hair”, the guy nodded. “It’s red, like fire, right?”

“More like blood”, Miss Fortune murmured and looked for a book in her locker.

“Hey, Sarah, was it?”

“Miss Fortune for you”, her tone was cold. “What do you want from me?”

“I wanted to ask if you would like to go out tonight”, he shrugged and winked. “You seem so distant from everyone else, I would like to get to know you better.”

“We don’t know at all to begin with”, Miss Fortune closed her locker. “And honestly, I’m not interested in dating.”

With that she left the guy at where he stood, staring after her like an idiot.

~*~

“There have been several mysterious fires lately in the city we are heading to”, Ahri explained as they flew towards a city they could see from far already. “They suppose there’s an arsonist on the job, so we’ll check it out and arrest him, if we can.”

_ Why fire _ , Miss Fortune thought, biting her teeth hard together.  _ I hate fire. It always reminds me of that day.. _

“Why is it so quiet here?” Ezreal asked when they landed on the street near to the edge of the city.

“Everyone’s too scared to come out this late”, Ahri answered, looking around suspicious. “Everyone’s ready to flee their homes if shit hits the fan in their neighbourhood.”

“But where is the arsonist”, Ezreal muttered. The five of them walked through the city until they were at the center of it.

“Let’s fly up to see immediately where the smoke comes from, if he hits tonight”, Ahri ordered. From above the city looked beautiful and peaceful. Lights in the windows in otherwise dark city looked like stars.  _ Fake stars to make people feel safe, _ Miss Fortune thought, looking around to see anything suspicious.

“There!” Ahri shouted and they flew fast towards the area smoke was rising from. “As soon as you see the guilty, go after him!”

The streets were filled with panicking people who tried to get as far from the burning house as they could. No one suspicious could be seen though; no one too calm, no one with gasoline or matches in hand.

“He can’t have gone far”, Ahri murmured. “Where is he?”

A laughter cut their search. A loud, deep laughter that made everyone’s skin go on goosebumps. Through the flames of the collapsing building walked a man ablaze himself, but flames did no harm to him. He was the source of the flames himself.

“The world will burn”, he said with a voice that rang in their heads. 

“It’s him”, Ahri screeched her teeth.

“And how are we supposed to imprison  _ that _ ?” Ezreal knit his eyebrows.

“It seems we can’t”, Ahri shook her head. “Kill him if you must. Just let’s free this city from a curse of the burning man.”

Ahri, Ezreal and Syndra flew all together to fight the flaming man. Miss Fortune bit her lip, but followed up anyway. Soraka didn’t come too close; she never did. She always stayed a bit further and focused on healing and helping her allies from the side of the battle.

A ball of fire flew across the street and almost hit Miss Fortune. She felt panic fill her lungs as she fired a few shots towards the flaming man.  _ I can’t start panicking now, or we’ll all be in danger, _ she thought.  _ Time to overcome my fears. _

The man left a roar and send fire flying everywhere, wherever a Star Guardian was hitting him with their magic. One of the fireballs flew straight towards Miss Fortune. The red and orange of the fire filled Miss Fortune’s sight, and for a moment she was sure she was doomed. She couldn’t move her limbs, it was like she was five years old again, too scared to move.

Soraka saved her. She grabbed Miss Fortune out of the way right before the fireball hit her. Meanwhile the others had defeated the fiery man, leaving only a pile of ash after him. As the citizens came forward to thank the STar Guardians, Ahri took Miss Fortune a bit further from everyone else.

“Are you harmed?” she asked, looking at Miss Fortune carefully. “Did the fire hit you?”

“No, I’m all good”, Miss Fortune answered, throwing a flock of hair out of her face. “Soraka was there for me, as always.”

“How did you freeze that bad?” Ahri kept on asking, staring right into Miss Fortune’s eyes. She knew it was pointless to lie; honesty was required in addition to work as a team, and besides Ahri could sense a lie million miles away.

“I’m afraid of the fire”, Miss Fortune admitted. “The only thing I fear. Uncontrollable fire. I’ve been afraid of it ever since I was little. My parents, my mother was murdered by robbers who lit the house afire when they left. I have no problems with candles and fireplaces or campfires, but uncontrollable fire is horrible.”

Ahri considered what she had heard and then said: “If it feels better in situations like this, stay back with Soraka and protect her. We have no use for a Star Guardian who freezes and puts us all in danger if we try to keep them alive in a fight.”

It was expectable, but it hit hard. Miss Fortune nodded to show she understood, but deep inside it felt bad. Every word Ahri said cut her inside, but she knew they were all true and she reminded herself of it.  _ You know it’s true, don’t take it personally. You fight for the group, you protect the universe. Rusty guns are more dangerous than the enemy. _

“We can’t risk the group”, Ahri touched Miss Fortune’s shoulder gently and smiled. “Sometimes it’s just better to stay out of the way and trust in the others. You know that. One mistake, it may be the end of it all. Who protects the universe if we fall?”


	4. The Green Star

Soraka had never known where she truly came from. She had unbelievable healing powers and strong magic, but no one had ever seen a creature like her before. Feet like on animals and a horn she soon learnt to hide from sight were not from the world she lived in. Years and years she lived in the city orphanage, being looked down on and bullied for being different until  _ they _ found her. The love she had from two people she started calling her parents, it was something she appreciated more than life itself. They adopted her and raised her like a normal child, teaching her everything about being a proper lady, honest, kind and polite, everything she had been for her birth, but was never appreciated for before.

“Are you going to the dance?” a classmate asked Soraka when the bell rang to end the class.

“The dance?” Soraka asked confused.

“Yes, there’s a dance, the Fall Ball they call it, are you coming?”

Soraka hesitated.

“Oh come on, you’ll have to! Even if you don’t dance, I know you are a bit clumsy. You could just sit aside and have fun with the others. Enjoy free food.”

“I’ll consider”, Soraka finally agreed. Her classmate smiled.

“Ask your mother to get you a dress for the evening”, she shouted as she left. “The more it shows your legs, the better!”

_ No, _ Soraka thought, suddenly embarrassed.  _ The less it shows my legs, the better. I can’t let everyone know I’m not a human.  _

~*~

“Mama? I need a dress for the school party. And shoes.”

Her mother looked surprised.

“I didn’t know you were a party person, honey”, she put away the book she had been reading. “Want to check out my wardrobe first? I have some beautiful dresses I have never worn myself.”

She had more dresses than Soraka would ever have guessed. As her mother started comparing dresses to Soraka’s body, she started to feel uncomfortable and embarrassed. The things girls always talked at school, makeup and clothes and boys and such, they never really hit Soraka. They were things she never understood.

“How about this, it would be nice on you”, her mother gave a dress to Soraka. And it was a beautiful dress. It only had one problem.

“This doesn’t cover enough if my legs”, she whispered. “It only reaches my knees, a bit more down maybe. But not enough.”

“I have a solution”, her mother searched for something more in her closet. “Where are they.. here!”

What she had in her hands was a pair of overknee-boots. 

“With these, your legs will be all covered”, she said, smiling. “Besides, they look great. Want to try them on?”

Smiling in her shy way Soraka nodded, grabbed the boots and the dress and hurried to her own room, confident that she would look just fitting among the other school kids.

~*~

Soraka sat at the side of the dancing hall. It was actually their school’s gym, turned into a stunning party with beautiful decorations all around. The lights were off and from some deep corner of the school storages they had brought colourful lights to make it feel like it was an actual disco or something like that.

One wall had a great, tall table full of different kinds of soft drinks and edible stuff both sweet and salty; cookies, candy, potato chips, cupcakes, pizza slices and much more. Close to it were some tables, chairs and benches to sit down on. Somewhere closer to the other end of the hall was a stage with a board for DJ, who played the music with a good touch. The middle of the hall was set up for dancers. There, Soraka could see, was also Ahri, dancing with some of her schoolmates. She was beautiful and many of the students stared at her at awe, both boys and girls. She was the queen of the school, uncrowned though.

“Hey, want a drink?”

Soraka raised her eyes up to Syndra, who stood next to her, stunning in her black and lila dress, holding two cups in her hands.

“Thank you”, Soraka took the cup Syndra gave her. Syndra sat on a chair next to Soraka and sipped from her own cup. 

“We’re not supposed to know each other”, Soraka whispered. Syndra snorted.

“It’s a school dance, relax”, she said, half grinning with one side of her mouth. “No one notices anything here as long as we stay away from Ahri. She drags all the looks in her direction.”

“You might be right”, Soraka sipped her own drink. It tasted sweet, like honey and sugar mixed with apples and cherries. “What is this?”

“They called it  _ A drink for the sweethearts _ ”, Syndra answered. “I thought it sounded just like you.”

“Do you have the same?”

“No. I have something they named  _ The darkness of the soul _ . Weird mix.”

“Can I taste? You can taste mine.”

Syndra looked at Soraka for a moment, then changed cups with her. They tasted each others’ drinks and both made a face. The drink Syndra had for herself tasted really weird. Like salty liquorice, cola, coffee and something even more bitter, maybe the medicine they took for cough.

“How can you drink that shit?” Syndra took a fast sip of her own cup to drown the sweetness down. “It’s gross!”

“Same”, Soraka muttered and tried to hide the taste of Syndra’s drink behind her own, sweet drink. For a long time they sat there together, not saying a word, just drinking their cups empty and watching the party-people dance like there was no tomorrow.

_ Being with her like this is so easy, _ Soraka thought, holding the empty cup in her hands.  _ She is always so quiet and keeps her distance. But when there’s only the two of us, she speaks up just like anyone else.  _

Shy as she was, Soraka didn’t always speak with people easily. But something in Syndra felt different that night. She was quiet as always, but she didn’t sit in some corner alone like she mostly did at school. Hell, no one barely saw her at school! During classes she chose the most back row seat to have her own peace, and during breaks she was nowhere to be found. Probably in some corridor’s corner in the third floor where no one had classes and only rare spent time in.

“I think I’m leaving”, Syndra finally broke the silence. “You gonna stay here?”

“I”, Soraka hesitated. “I think-- I’m… I’m going as well.”

“Need me to walk you home or something?” Syndra asked when they walked out of the school gym, out to the cool evening.

“No, I’m good, I’ll call my parents to pick me up”, Soraka smiled at Syndra. “Do you need a ride?”

“I’ll rather walk”, Syndra shook her head. “Cool air feels good and the night is the best time for walks.”

“Oh, okay then”, Soraka nodded. “See you someday again.”

“In duty, we probably have to”, Syndra snorted. Soraka looked at Syndra and suddenly decided to give her a fast, gentle kiss on the cheek. Syndra looked surprised, but not annoyed.

“See you in duty”, she just said and walked away. Soraka took a deep breath before calling for her parents to get a car ride back home. The way Syndra had not really reacted to the kiss left Soraka a good feeling of the evening. They were so different with each other; Soraka was open, loving, caring and didn’t fear to show her warm feelings for her friends and family, while Syndra was dark, mysterious, distant and either didn’t want to or didn’t know how to express her feelings.

_ It’s fine. She will learn. She’s a Star Guardian after all. _


	5. The Purple Star

The sky was dark and cloudy as the Star Guardians flew across the land they had been thrown to. They were supposed to catch yet another criminal, a man who had murdered the leader of his own clan and ran away after.

“He seems to be excellent at hiding”, Ahri said. “These villages here are only guesses, where he could be hiding at.”

“Hope we are lucky”, Ezreal yawned. “I don’t really have much interest in going through village after another to find someone who’s been playing hide and seek for years.”

“We’ll find him”, Syndra said shortly. She rarely spoke, and when she did it was not many words she said. Mostly the truth, though.

The Star Guardians landed on the edge of a small village. The people were all surprised by their visit, but seemed to be happy to have visitors at all. Behind the village rose a high mountain, gray and huge, its peak disappearing behind the clouds filling the sky.

“Is there a tavern here?” Ahri asked, smiling her charming smile to an older lady. The lady nodded and pointed at a house at the end of the street going through the whole village.

“There, go on and have a drink, ask for red berry wine or brown sugar, they are the best drinks in the whole country, don’t say I didn’t tell you!”

“Thank you, I will”, Ahri smiled and lead her group through the village and straight to the tavern. The common room was small and smelled of smoke, but nicely lit with candles. If Star Guardians were not counted in, there were only two customers; a guy with a hat and a young girl, clearly from another area, judging by her red robes and darker skin.

“Oh, my ladies! Beautiful, gorgeous, what would you like to have?” the bartender started as soon as the door closed behind the Guardians. Ahri smiled at him.

“A round of brown sugar for everyone, please.”

“It’s on the house, pretty ones”, the bartender nodded and hurried to prepare the glasses for everyone. “May I ask what brings such beautiful creatures to this corner of the universe?”

Syndra could see Miss Fortune grin at Ezreal and Soraka hide her mouth behind her hand to not laugh. Ezreal coughed lightly.

“We are only passing by”, Ahri answered. “Let’s sit down for a while.”

The Star Guardians sat around a round table and made it look like they rested and chatted about something unimportant.

“He travels around alone with a sword by his side”, Ahri whispered. “So if there should be a stranger with a sword walking in, let’s talk with him that instant and make sure it’s him.”

Time passed and the Guardians took another drinks, but everyone entering the tavern seemed to be villagers who greeted the bartender as their friend.

“We are wasting our time”, Miss Fortune murmured.

“Let’s wait for a while and continue our trip then”, Ahri answered her.

The tavern door opened and three men walked in.

“We have come to rob this fucker town”, one of them shouted and pointed a gun at the bartender. “Stay where you are and no one gets hurt.”

The Star Guardians jumped up, but weren’t the first ones to react. A rock hit one of the robbers in the middle of the forehead. The Star Guardians saw the girl hold a rock in her hand, ready to fire another at the robbers.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing?” another robber said and dodged a rock. 

“This is not your town”, the girl said with a clear voice. “Get out of here before I really get mad.”

“So sweet”, a robber snorted and pointed a gun at the girl. Miss Fortune shot first. She hit the robber’s hand so that he screamed in pain and dropped the gun.

“Didn’t your parents teach you any courtesy?” Miss Fortune grinned. The robber spit towards her.

“You fucker, I will make you regret you started to--” he swore, but stopped. The earth was shaking and both the robbers and local folk seemed to panic.

“Oh shit”, someone whispered. “It’s the monsters. They are coming down again! Everyone, take cover!”

Before anyone could cover themself, the roof of the house flew off. Tens, hundreds even if not thousands little monsters crawled down from the mountain and flew to the village, eating anything they could bury their teeth in.

“Hurry! We’ll have to help the villagers!” Ahri shouted and all five of them blinked into the fight. The monsters were not strong, but they had the power of many on their side. 

A whirl of wind sent a few monsters flying from Soraka’s side. She startled, but understood that the wind had been on her side. She looked around and let out a gasp when the man from the tavern stood a bit further, with a sword in his hand. He had taken his hat off, and now his hair flew with the wind he seemed to control with his sword.

“Isn’t that..?” Ezreal started.

“He’s the guy we’re after”, Miss Fortune screeched her teeth.

“We’ll deal with him after the invasion is over”, Ahri commanded. They fought alongside the person they were supposed to capture. The girl accompanying him was protecting the villagers in the broken tavern, further from everyone else. 

When the monsters were all gone or crawling back onto the mountain, Ahri dashed towards the man. She was exhausted, but thought to surprise him. She was wrong. From the corner of his eye the man saw Ahri come, and flew her back with a whirlwind. Ahri screamed as she hit her back and head to the wall, and fell unconscious to the ground.

“You fucker”, Miss Fortune made a face and shot a few shots towards the man. A wall of wind caught the bullets up and the man dashed to Miss Fortune. He grabbed her by the collar and stared right into her eyes.

“I’ve got a name”, he said, quietly. “Sure you know it, since you are after my head.”

“Let her go!” Ezreal shouted and blinked closer to help Miss Fortune. The guy threw Miss Fortune at Ezreal and they both flew back to ground. Soraka had moved next to Ahri, to check that she was all right. Ahri was slowly waking up, swearing that her head hurt.

“Sure we do, Yasuo”, Syndra said and flew her balls to knock the man down. “You were told to be a murderer and outlaw, a criminal worth a hundred men.”

“They call me a criminal”, Yasuo coughed, looking up to Syndra. She stared above him, keeping him down with her balls. “But the one who really assassinated our master, was not me. I may be an outlaw, but for a different reason than you think. I want to find the real murderer, and bring him justice.”

Syndra met Yasuo’s eyes. They stared at each other for a good while, and silence fell on everyone. Finally Syndra called her balls off and walked away.

“Why are you letting him go?” Miss Fortune asked, clearly pissed off. 

“Eyes are a mirror to the soul”, Syndra answered. “He’s not lying. He’s a good man.”

Syndra passed Ezreal and Miss Fortune by. They were watching as Yasuo stood up, walked to the girl and left with her. Where they went, no one knew. And no one dared to ask. The Star Guardians started their way back home, away from the small village they had just saved.

“What now?” Ezreal broke the silence with a question.

“We were supposed to catch him”, Miss Fortune puffed air out of her lungs. “We failed our mission.”

“We never met him”, Ahri said with clear voice. “We happened to save the village while tracking him down, not getting any results. Simple as truth.”

Everyone agreed on it, as much as they had to agree with Syndra’s decision to let him go.


	6. The Pink Star

Ahri floated in the darkness, her nine tails whirling around. It was not that nice, peaceful darkness she had known for the darkness of the universe. Something was coming. It chased her. Ahri ran. First her small feet touched nothing, she just ran in the air, reaching towards four shining stars that slowly faded away in the distance, and then a trail appeared under her feet and she ran in a forest, darkness following her up, laughing, whispering in her ears, calling for her, the stars were gone…

That was always the moment when Ahri woke up, sweaty and breathing heavily, feeling the panic bump in her chest. With a deep breath Ahri calmed herself down.

_ It’s just a dream _ , Ahri thought, staring out of the window in her room. The dawn was breaking behind the buildings of the city, slowly dyeing the sky with light pink and orange colours.  _ My heart is pounding fast. Wow, I’ve seen that nightmare many times before, how can I still fear it? _

Ahri sat up on the edge of her bed.  _ I might as well get up already. At least I’ll have some good time for myself this morning _ , she thought and reached for her towel.

The shower felt good. Ahri let her tails be out at home, but washing them was such an operation she couldn’t usually do in the morning shower. This morning Ahri had time, though. She cleaned her tails carefully and afterwards brushed them smooth, just like she did her hair.

_ Sadly, no one sees these tails at school, _ Ahri thought while brushing the last of her tails.  _ It’s a school for human beings. Foxes are no humans. _

They were not her words, not in the beginning. She remembered them from somewhere in the past, when she was nothing but a child and accidentally showed her tails at nasty boys who had been throwing rocks at a squirrell.  _ Those are real tails, aren’t they? No human has real tails. _ And they had tried to take them off her, they had taken her skirt up to see if the tails were really coming up from her back.  _ It has tails in its butt! That’s not a human. Humans have no tails. Are you a cat? A fox? A weirdo animal. You are no human. _

Ahri had cried and scratched a deep cut on one boy’s cheek, and then ran away. The kids told at home it was a wild animal that made the scratch, and so they told at school. Soon everyone was talking about the mad animal the boys had bravely fought.

_ Humans are all liars, _ Ahri thought, putting her hairbrush away. She looked at herself in the mirror.  _ They are selfish liars who only look for comfort and honour, best if earned with someone else’s achievements. _

Ahri let the towel drop off her body and went for the wardrobe. School uniform was boring, though an easy choice every morning.  _ No hard choices _ , Ahri grinned and pulled the shirt on.

~*~

It was the charm that made everyone fall for her, and Ahri knew it. She walked through the corridor and spoke with another upper class beauty, and everyone looked at them go. Ahri didn’t even try to hide her charm. It was a strong spell, and Ahri let it float around her.  _ I’ll go to school only once. Best take all out of it, and enjoy it all I can _ , Ahri thought and winked at a guy from another class.

“Want to go shopping tonight?” her classmate asked, smiling at Ahri. Her smile was sexy, and Ahri liked that. She had two girl friends and two boys in the group she normally hang out in the school; girls were the sexy one and the pretty one, boys were handsome and stunning both. The five of them were the cream of the school, and everyone seemed to adore them. “The popular ones”, people said. “The rich ones”, some called. Not everyone said them with a friendly tone, but those were people Ahri didn’t care about. They were trash, jealous and bitter, and their opinions were not opinions but whispers in the wind.

“No, sorry Siv”, Ahri smile apologetic. “I have something else for today already.”

“You do?” Sivir raised a brow. “A date, perhaps?”

“Nothing important”, Ahri smiled. Sivir laughed.

“If he or she or whatever they are is cute, or handsome, or just nice, I’ll want to meet them”, Sivir demanded. Ahri laughed.

“Maybe you will, one day”, Ahri winked. “Have you seen Orianna anywhere? Go with her, she’s got a good taste.”

“Guess she does”, Sivir shrugged and grinned. “Don’t we all, huh?”

Ahri answered the grin.

“I guess we do.”

~*~

Ahri traveled to the training galaxy by herself, just to feel the freshness of the air there. The city had such a heavy air, especially if compared to the paradise they had for the training place. Besides, Ahri loved transforming into her Star Guardian form.

It started with little tinkling in her toes and fingers, and grew to cover her whole body. Sparkles surrounded her, and her regular clothes disappear from the way. For just a small moment, that sometimes felt to last forever, she was naked. Her tails and ears pushed their way out of her body as the clothes started appearing. The small star on her chest bursted out a light when she was complete.

_ It never fails to amaze me, _ Ahri thought, looking at herself, spinning around. No matter how many times she transformed, it made her always as happy as it did on the first time.

For a while Ahri kept on spinning around, playing with Kiko, her companion, and dashing after her own tails, until she grew tired and returned back to the base, back to their club room, where she had put cookies and coffee ready for herself, when she’d return. She did that many times, sometimes she prepared coffee and snacks for all five of them.

_ It’s our way of relaxing, _ Ahri thought as she bit a cookie.  _ We are not friends. We are no closer than partners. We are strong, because we don’t care. Caring makes us weak, caring hurts. And if it hurts and breaks… it’s not effective. All of us know what it is to lose someone close to us. Lose something that makes us whole. We know we can’t afford losing something that close to us again, or we’ll break. That’s why we are not close to each other. We work together, we are strong, and when the job is done, we have our own lives again. _

Deep inside Ahri knew it was all lies with just a seed of truth in it. Caring about someone truly hurt, if something were to happen to the loved ones, but she couldn't say she didn't really care about her comrades. She knew it would hurt her one day, to care about them so much. Like it had hurt her before. But as long as they would keep getting stronger, the fear of losing them would fade away too. 

Ahri sat in the club room for the whole afternoon. It was quiet and peaceful there, when no one was there to disturb her. And she liked that sound of silence.


	7. Asterism

The morning was abnormally foggy. Ahri disliked it. She could sense her teammates dislike it as well.  _ Weird. In normal conditions, we can’t feel each other this way, _ Ahri thought.  _ Something’s wrong. _

Without a second thought Ahri walked her way to their club room in the Piltower instead of going straight to school. She felt like they needed to go check if something was wrong in the Crossroad of Universes. It was the place where millions, thousands of millions gates led to other worlds. That was the place where they could see everywhere. And there they started each of their missions across the universe.

At front door Ezreal was just about to enter the building, when he saw Ahri come by. He smiled, as usual, but his smile was somewhat nervous.

“Morning, Ahri”, he greeted. “Wanted to have a snack before classes start?”

“Did you feel the odd this morning?” Ahri asked, looking straight into Ezreal’s eyes. Boy swallowed and nodded.

“Yeah. I wanted to come see if everyone’s okay”, he admitted.

“Then let’s go.”

When they entered the club room upstairs, everyone else was already there. Soraka looked worried as ever, Miss Fortune turned instantly towards Ahri and Ezreal, and Syndra stared quietly out of the window.

“Something’s wrong in this city”, Miss Fortune snapped before Ezreal had closed the door behind him. “I can feel it in the air. Something is twisted, and makes me feel cold.”

“I can feel it too”, Soraka nodded. “My skin is on goosebumps.”

“We all can feel it”, Ahri said. “And I think we should go check it out at the Crossroads.”

No one said a word against her, even though they all knew it wasn’t too long until their school should start. At that moment they had quite a lot more important thing in their minds.

With Ahri’s lead the five of them transformed into their Star Guardian forms and travelled through time and space to the Crossroad of Universes, where they could see every world they were taking care of. The portals to other universes were darker than usual. Foggy, dark, as if something big would make a shadow over every world at once. Ahri looked at every world one at a time, feeling a small horror rise inside of her.

_ I have never seen anything like this, _ she thought.  _ This looks like the ancient darkness I’m afraid of… like the one the First Star always keeps warning us of… _

“Should we check one world out closer?” Ezreal suggested, looking at one of the portals. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence. A bad weather passing by or something.”

“I don’t think so”, Ahri sighed. “But sure, let’s go take a closer look.”

Ahri walked through a portal with her crew behind her. The world they entered had forests all around. It was usually a beautiful, sunny place where rain would come once or twice a month, blessing the crops and gardens of the citizens. It was a world where everyone used to smile when they saw Star Guardians arrive.

Today it was all different. The sky was black, cloudy, but no sign of rain were to be seen. Crops were about to die, gardens were empty, forests cried in the wind begging for some sunlight. No animals, no humans, nothing moved in the world except for the Star Guardians. When they passed villages by, they saw people inside their houses, peeking out scared, hiding behind the curtains.

_ But what are they afraid of? _ Ahri thought, anxious. 

The answer came out sooner than she had expected. A huge herd of monsters of varying sizes was running around in a village they arrived, breaking things and eating the people of the village if they were cocky enough to stay in the monsters’ sight. 

Ahri, Miss Fortune, Soraka, Ezreal and Syndra flew fast to the battlefield to save what they could. The villagers were horrified, panicking, and the monsters seemed to get more energy from their fear, getting more dangerous every minute.

“They don’t seem to have a limit”, Ezreal shouted.

“When you kill one, two more spawn out of somewhere”, Miss Fortune agreed. “They are like hydra.”

“MF, take care!” Soraka screamed and healed Miss Fortune as she fell down under the weight of a few monsters jumping on her.

“Sarah!” Ahri shouted as she heard the screams, but a few monsters blocked her way to her friend. Furious she destroyed the monsters with her foxfire, but more came through as the first ones fell.

Ezreal heard Miss Fortune scream as well, and hurried to jump over to her. One of the monster, that was about to hit Miss Fortune, hit Ezreal instead and left a big bleeding scratch on his cheek. Ezreal shot the monsters off her, and stood upon his comrade while Soraka ran closer to heal her better. Miss Fortune made a face out of pain and let a few curse words out of her mouth.

“We should fall back”, Syndra said, flying over to the three of them. “I’ll get Ahri. You two take care of Miss Fortune.”

Soraka grabbed Miss Fortune and helped her up on her feet. Miss Fortune bit her lip and rose a gun to shoot down the enemies coming closer. Ezreal could feel the blood flow down her cheek, but refused to complain as long as Miss Fortune was unable to walk properly.

Syndra made her way up to Ahri. 

“Ahri, we’ll have to fall back”, Syndra said. “There are too many of them.”

“We have our mission”, Ahri answered, not looking at Syndra, taking down monster after another.

“We are not on a mission.”

“We are always on a mission. Our mission is to protect the universes.”

Syndra snapped her teeth together. She flew the closest monsters a way back with her balls and grabbed Ahri by the hand, forcing her to meet her eyes. Syndra’s eyes were fierce, Ahri’s scared.

“We are losing this”, Syndra whispered. “How do we protect the universe, if our leader is trying to get us all killed? Look at us! We are not strong enough for this!”

Ahri closed her eyes to fight the tears. She knew Syndra was right. Of course she was. She had been a Star Guardian before, just like Ahri, and she had seen it all, maybe even more.

“Let’s retreat”, Ahri whispered. “Let’s get the others. Let’s retreat.”

Syndra nodded and both of them flashed to their teammates. Ahri grabbed Miss Fortune by the hand and in a blink of an eye, she transferred them from the attacked world back to their own club room at Piltower. Exhausted by the fight, they fell all down and just sat there for a long moment. Soraka seeked for the first aid kit they had in the closet, and helped Ezreal and Miss Fortune with their wounds. Soraka had a few scratches herself, but they seemed to be healing fast. With her touch others’ wounds seemed to get better instantly, too, but she didn’t have enough energy to completely heal everyone.

“That was one hell of a fight”, Miss Fortune murmured, closing her eyes.

_ Stop hiding your emotions, _ a thought came up to Ahri’s mind, not sure if it was her own.  _ You know they could have died today. And it would’ve been your fault, to not retreat in time. You know you care about them, so say it. _

“There might be more coming”, Ahri said, feeling desperate and sad. “And next time we might not be able to fall back. We’ll have to get stronger before that.”

“And how does that happen?” Miss Fortune asked. Ahri sighed.

“First of all, we’ll have to admit our true feelings. We’ll have to know what we are fighting for. Not for the duty we have, but for the things we find important to us. Each other.”

Everyone was quiet, but the atmosphere had changed. Everyone was thinking about the words Ahri had just said. They all knew. If Ahri had once said, that emotions were only in the way of their job, she had been protecting herself from getting hurt again. But she really cared about her team, every one of them. They were close like a family, closer than just friends; they were Star Guardians.

“Today was rough”, Ahri finally broke the silence. “I think we should just go home and get some rest.”

“Agreed”, Ezreal sighed. “I feel like I could sleep all day long.”

The five of them went all to different directions from the club room, but even though their ways separated, they were now closer to each other than ever had been before. 


End file.
